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Bottled water 'is immoral'

telegraph.co.uk

1–10 of 45 posts

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#2
"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser"

Yeah, and I think that telling other people what to do with their lives in order to prevent the emission of miniscule amounts of CO2 should be as unfashionable as smoking too, but hell, what would I know?

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#3
post #2

"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser" Yeah, and I think that telling other people what to do with their lives in order to prevent the emission of miniscule amounts of CO2 should be as unfashionable as smoking too, but hell, what would I know?

I have a little theory about this. When one issue moves into the mainstream, the avant-garde of the self-righteous find a new issue to focus on. They need to, in order to preserve their identity of being distinct from (morally superior to) the masses. It's analogous to music hipsters who immediately discard a band when it becomes popular.

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#5
post #3
post #2

"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser" Yeah, and I think that telling other people what to do with their lives in order to prevent the emission of miniscule amounts of CO2 should be as unfashionable as smoking too, but hell, what would I know?

I have a little theory about this. When one issue moves into the mainstream, the avant-garde of the self-righteous find a new issue to focus on. They need to, in order to preserve their identity of being distinct from (morally superior to) the masses. It's analogous to music hipsters who immediately discard a band when it becomes popular.

It's funny how "morality" is trendy.

- EDIT -

quotes around morality

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#6
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a little theory about this. When one issue moves into the mainstream, the avant-garde of the self-righteous find a new issue to focus on. They need to, in order to preserve their identity of being distinct from (morally superior to) the masses. It's analogous to music hipsters who immediately discard a band when it becomes popular.

It's funny how "morality" is trendy. - EDIT - quotes around morality

It's not clear to me that conspicuous conservation has that much to do with morality.

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#7
post #6
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how "morality" is trendy. - EDIT - quotes around morality

It's not clear to me that conspicuous conservation has that much to do with morality.

Exactly. I think it has to do with identity: "I'm the kind of person who..." We seek ways to distinguish ourselves from other people because differences produce meaning, or at least a feeling of it. Constructing an identity to fortify one's ego is an intrinsically selfish activity (I mean "self-ish" literally, i.e. concerning self), which may be why the morality-based identities seem more often to be hypocritical.

By the way, "conspicuous conservation" is a great term! I hadn't heard that.

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#8
post #7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear to me that conspicuous conservation has that much to do with morality.

Exactly. I think it has to do with identity: "I'm the kind of person who..." We seek ways to distinguish ourselves from other people because differences produce meaning, or at least a feeling of it. Constructing an identity to fortify one's ego is an intrinsically selfish activity (I mean "self-ish" literally, i.e. concerning self), which may be why the morality-based identities seem more often to be hypocritical. By…

Which "brand" of self-identity is fashionable and acceptable matters, though. I'd rather be part of a society where "I"m the kind of person who conserves and thinks about morality" is fashionable than one where the dominant self-identity is, say, "I'm the kind of person who'd rather kill and die than take disrespect from anyone."

Re: Bottled water 'is immoral'

#9
post #2

"Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser" Yeah, and I think that telling other people what to do with their lives in order to prevent the emission of miniscule amounts of CO2 should be as unfashionable as smoking too, but hell, what would I know?

On the other hand, I did think it was pretty silly the other day when I saw water from New Zealand for sale here in California. Loading water onto a ship to ship it across more water to sell in a place which already has plenty of water seems pretty wasteful.

But I said "silly", not "immoral".

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